Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

DAILY MANIFESTO

Monolith Soft Has Proven It’s The New Squaresoft

Watching the debut trailer for X earlier in the week, I was mystified. "How in the world is this not called Final Fantasy, and are you sure this isn’t Final Fantasy Versus XIII?" I thought.

We've grown accustomed to seeing RPGs announced with awesome trailers that are composed completely of cutscenes, but here was something that was practically tangible. The visuals were excellent, the landscapes were expansive, and the combat appeared exciting. It was almost as if it was too good to be true—a quick pinch of the forearm revealed that I wasn’t dreaming after all.

Truthfully, I shouldn’t have been as shocked as I was. Monolith Soft has been kicking butt and taking names for several years now. Its previous release is just about the closest thing you can get to a classic JRPG in the modern era. The game I’m speaking of is Xenoblade Chronicles, and it’s the game which has kept me from throwing my arms up and giving up on JRPGs. Not only did it have a huge world to explore, but its space was worth adventuring through.

In other words, Monolith Soft is completely capable of making games that Square Enix has been fighting to produce for years now. While on one hand it’s unfortunate that Square Enix is a mere shadow of its former self, being able to play a worthwhile game without the recycled elements of breakthrough hits of the '80s is a breath of fresh air—I love chocobos and Final Fantasy’s battle theme, but talk about beating a dead horse.

Sure, X’s trailer wasn’t lengthy, but it showed everything it needed to. When it comes down to it, it’s exactly what we’ve wanted from Square Enix for years, and the only thing the company has managed to show that is remotely similar is Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a game that will probably never come out—at least not in our lifetime.

So while Square Enix continues to push out additional versions of Final Fantasy XIII, Monolith Soft is becoming even better at what it does. The only catch is Monolith Soft has remained tight-woven with Nintendo, and there’s just about no chance of FFX coming to other platforms. But this is a game that belongs to the same franchise as Xenogears. For crying out loud, you can't say no to that.